Tuesday 10 May 2016

Almost There....Balancing The Egg!

Played with two puzzles this evening. Had success with one but not the other.

The first puzzle (which I managed to solve without help) was Larry Siedman's IPP35 Exchange Puzzle called "Almost There", designed by Goh Pit Khiam. 


This is a 2D packing puzzle entirely made from laser cut wood with 5 pieces consisting of 2 different identical shapes. Good quality manufacture here. Object is to fit all 5 pieces flush inside the tray.

Having played with several of Goh's packing puzzles and knowing his "signature style" of design, it didn't take me too long to solve. Please PM me if you want to the solution. The less initiated will find it pretty difficulty I guess. Challenging and tricky but not as hard as for example Fusion.

The second puzzle which I failed miserably at and no clue at all how to solve is Stephen Chin's "Ze Balancing Egg", his IPP35 Exchange Puzzle. Crafted out of what appears to be Mahogany, this is a beautifully made wooden turned egg, the size of a typical real egg. It even comes with it own decorative stand. Goal here is to balance the egg upright on its own (not on the stand).




I can hear a weight (possibly a ball bearing or similar) rolling around within the internal confines of the egg and I know the weight needs to be right at the bottom of the egg to get it standing upright...It's a dexterity puzzle of some sort probably but I just have no idea how to execute the necessary moves. A couple of times I thought I got it...but no! I am writing to Stephen for a clue, but he takes a while to reply. So if any of my readers can help me, please feel free to drop me a note. Any assistance will be much appreciated.

3 comments:

  1. you can Balance real eggs during the winter and summer solstice I want to make a puzzle that takes advantage of this

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  2. there are a few internal views off puzzle eggs here: http://www.robspuzzlepage.com/dexterity.htm

    maybe these will help?

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  3. and then there's patent 4489944, Columbus Egg by Morichika Hatakeyama and Koichi Minami - http://www.jaapsch.net/puzzles/patents/us4489944.pdf

    doesn't mean it has anything to do with the internals of your puzzle though

    ReplyDelete